Summary

Twenty winter wheat varieties were used as parents in a half diallel crossing programme for the production of wheat populations and physical mixtures that were then grown in field trials at two non-organic and two organic sites over three years in England. Yields of the populations and mixtures were compared with those of the relevant varieties grown as pure stands. In general, there was an improvement in yielding ability in the populations which was achieved while maintaining a high level of stability across environments. Potential improvements through selection or introduction of broader based populations are discussed.

This paper is published in the conference proceedings: Neuhoff, Daniel; Halberg, Niels; Alfldi, Thomas; Lockeretz, William; Thommen, Andreas; Rasmussen, Ilse A.; Hermansen, John; Vaarst, Mette; Lck, Lorna; Carporali, Fabio; Jensen, Henning Hgh; Migliorini, Paola and Willer, Helga, Eds. (2008) .Cultivating the Future Based on Science. Proceedings of the Second Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), held at the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress in Cooperation with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the Consorzio ModenaBio, 18 . 20 June 2008 in Modena, Italy.. International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), c/o IOL, DE-Bonn, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, CH-Frick. http://orgprints.org/13672 and http://orgprints.org/13674